Failure

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. "
Bill Cosby US comedian & television actor (1937 - )

Two weeks of the most intense activity, even more so than in the early hectic days in the summer. The inevitable consequence of extreme busyness is that you have to prioritize. You cannot fulfill all requests - something has to give. If you "succeed" at work under these circumstances, then there's a good chance that you may not be present at home. If, conversely, you "succeed" at home during a period of intense demands at work, then there's a good chance that work may be taking a hit. If you somehow manage to keep both going, you may be neglecting your body, or your friends, or your personal development. Or, perhaps you simply may not be keeping in touch with your relations, or attending your club etc.

Depending on how many stakeholders you have in your life, the demands can be quite challenging to meet. But often you can establish an equilibrium that is quite fulfilling under normal circumstances. This fragile balance between your supply of energy, time and attention to the different stakeholders is shattered when one area goes into crisis-mode with a step change in demand level. Here is where you run the risk of slipping into failure-mode - where you try to meet all the demands, you try to please everybody.

One concept I discuss in the Four Elements framework (see http://www.bobowest.com) is Flow. One metaphor for flow is water in a pipe. When the pressure is turned up, the water flows faster, but if the pipe has many holes in it, the flow is disrupted. The holes in the pipe are those demands that turn your attention from the most important stakeholders in your life. And, in this, you need to be very honest about what you value most. Some people claim that work is not important and then go into panic and depression when that aspect of their lives deteriorates. Given that we often spend over eight hours per day at work, it would seem to have an intrinsic high value merely because of the volume of our lives that at lived there. Not to mention the financial value it brings. Family is also critically important, ultimately much more so than work. So is health. But you need to look closely at some of the other areas. Also, within one area, do you really need to satisfy everyone' s demands or are some customers more important than others?

I guess the crux of the matter is that saying yes to one thing often means saying no to another so we need to be very conscious of what we are saying no to. But, ultimately, we have to question the nature of failure itself. Is a bad result really failure? What if you bounce back and address the issue with renewed vigour? Do you really fail if you keep driving forwards?

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. "
Sir Winston Churchill, British politician (1874 - 1965)

Facts

"Where facts are few, experts are many. "
Donald R Gannon

Another day spent at home nursing the family and resisting the lure of the flu pandemic. A high regular dosage of vitamin C via a flask of hot water with lemon, regular ingestion of echinacea and a good intake of fruit fortifies the body's defences. Fact. No expertise required, just experience. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, not in the theory. Picking up from yesterday's musings, it does seem that the realm of the expert does require some smoke and mirrors. If all is factual, there is not much scope for being an expert, is there? Conversely, where the subject matter is shrouded in uncertainty, therein lies the feast of the expert, with intricate theories and elaborate models and systems. Perhaps this somewhat cynical assessment of the role of the expert should be restricted to matters of the intellect rather than practical (physical) tasks, where muscle memory can convey real expertise beyond the realm of fact.

Expert

"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it. "
Robert Heinlein, US science fiction author (1907 - 1988)

Back after another break. The challenge is to keep this going in the midst of much intensity at work and in life. At the moment, my family has been struck down with a nasty illness and I'm playing nurse while fighting the insurgents at the gates of my body. Being healthy is important and I would like to be an expert in this. But I don't want to be limited either. I guess the limitation of being an expert lies in the being bound by the law of cause and effect. Experts tend to be more concerned with the effects and do not have much grasp on the cause side. Take illness. What causes illness? Really. Experts - doctors in this case - will have detailed knowledge and expertise about illnesses and about their potential cures. However, the actual cause of illness is surrounded by smoke and mirrors. Are the bacteria or viruses, which are on the scene when the illness symptoms are observed, the cause of the illness or merely consistent scavengers of dying cells and tissues, rather like rats on a rubbish tip or maggots on a rotting carcass? Does the body get healed or does it heal itself? I guess it is easy to get bogged down in the details of what causes what and how things work etc - that is the realm of experts. The real question is, can we take a stand and cause things ourselves? Can I cause myself to be healthy? Can I cause myself to avoid the illness that is ravaging my family? Can I become an expert in cause? Or will I be an educated slave to effect?

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few. "
Shunryu Suzuki